B.C.'s Kootenay fossil site offers rare view into history of life on Earth

Colette Derworiz, Calgary Herald08.22.2014

Jean-Bernard Caron, curator of invertebrate paleontology with the Royal Ontario Museum, uses a sledgehammer to extract a piece of shale containing a fossil Wednesday at the Marble Canyon site.Colette Derworiz
/ Calgary Herald

A fossil can be seen in the rock at the Marble Canyon site in Kootenay National Park.Colette Derworiz
/ Calgary Herald

Jean-Bernard Caron, curator of invertebrate paleontology with the Royal Ontario Museum, stands by the containers holding fossils to ship back to Toronto for further study Wednesday at the Marble Canyon site.Colette Derworiz
/ Calgary Herald

Jean-Bernard Caron shows the layers of the fossil bed near Marble Canyon in Kootenay National Park.Colette Derworiz
/ Calgary Herald

Robert Gaines, associate professor of geology at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., points to some of the fossils found at the Marble Canyon bed in Kootenay National Park on Wednesday.Colette Derworiz
/ Calgary Herald

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KOOTENAY NATIONAL PARK — On a steep mountain slope near Marble Canyon, Jean-Bernard Caron places a metal wedge into a crack in the shale rock and hits it with a sledgehammer.

“Now that it’s cracked, it’s much easier to split,” said Caron, curator of invertebrate paleontology with the Royal Ontario Museum and an associate professor at the University of Toronto.

Once it cracks even more, Caron switches to a small jackhammer. Then a larger one that requires some help from his PhD student, Cedric Aria.

It’s hard work, but they finally extract the fossil — a specimen that will be cut down to a smaller size, packaged up and sent to a Toronto lab for further study.

Caron and Aria are part of a 12-member team excavating the quarry on the north face of Stanley Peak, located at an elevation of 2,000 metres about 1.5 kilometres off Highway 93 S. in Kootenay National Park.

Researchers “stumbled across” the site in the summer of 2012 as they explored the area after finding an important deposit near Stanley Glacier four years earlier.

During a helicopter tour organized by Parks Canada to the aptly named Marble Canyon site, Caron said they’ve already hit the jackpot.

“From this work, we have found about 3,000 specimens, representing 55 species of which 12 were new to science,” he said. “We are starting to describe what we’ve found in more detail, organism by organism.”

It’s believed the area and its fossils will further the understanding of animal life during the Cambrian Period, 505 million years ago, when most of the major groups of animals appear on the fossil record.

Researchers have found a number of rare species thought only to exist at the Walcott Quarry, the original Burgess Shale site in neighbouring Yoho National Park.

One of the major finds at Marble Canyon, published in the journal Nature in June, is a metaspriggina — an ancient fish with a jaw that offers insights into the evolution of humans.

“It’s a fantastic place for the understanding of our roots,” said Caron, noting the site compliments Walcott Quarry in its significance. “The Burgess Shale is already an icon . . . in trying to understand our roots.

“This new site shows that, with more work in the field, we have more chances to find some incredible fossils.”

The team, which started its work in July and will stay until early September, continues to find new specimens at the Marble Canyon site — including more of the ancient fish, as well as a type of worm that hasn’t been found anywhere else on the planet.

Robert Gaines, an associate professor of geology at Pomona College in Claremont, Calif., said the fossils are extremely well preserved.

“Something really magical is happening here to preserve these things in extraordinary detail,” he said. “This site only compares to the Walcott Quarry in terms of the quality of preservation and the sheer abundance of forms.

“So the fossils that you are going to be seeing here are things that just shouldn’t be in the fossil record.”

Officials with Kootenay National Park said they are proud to be part of such important work.

“There’s not many things left to discover in the world,” said Alex Kolesch, manager of land use, policy and planning for Parks Canada. “To have something like this that is so novel and is such an important discovery in the world of evolution is quite remarkable.”

His colleague, Kristi Beetch, leads guided hikes into the other Burgess Shale sites in Kootenay and Yoho.

“It’s not that well known,” she said, noting people often bring family and friends who have never heard of the fossil discoveries. “By the end of the day, they know what it’s all about and they understand it.”

Beetch said it’s important for visitors to understand.

“This is showing ancestry going back 505 million years ago for 95 per cent of the animals we have on the planet — including ours,” she said. “It’s really inspiring to people.”

There’s no trail to the Marble Canyon site, and no immediate plans to allow visitors into the area. It could, however, be considered depending on the outcome of the current research program.

In the meantime, Caron said he and his team will continue to work in the area for as long as parks will allow the research.

“It was very fortunate that these two sites are in the national parks because this quarry will be protected for future generations,” he said. “We are very fortunate to be able to work here.”

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B.C.'s Kootenay fossil site offers rare view into history of life on Earth

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